One of the biggest reasons people get into worm farming is to generate as many
castings as possible for the planting season. There are a LOT of mixes and
castings percentages to choose from, and if you're new to using castings, then
there can be a fear of not having enough to go around. Well, have no fear!
That's why you signed up for the newsletter ;)

Even if you have not read the books below,
that's
okay. I always love to help in any way I can, and through many avenues.
Whether you're starting from seed, seedlings, indoors, or outdoors the mix will
still be the same.

Lets say you just began worm farming at the
beginning of this year with a pound or two of composting worms. Chances are you
don't have much castings from your castings harvest, but you know you have to
use what you got, right? We'll try to make this stretch as much as possible and
still come out with flying, flowery colors, smelling like roses ;)

Starting in Starter Pots
You can use anywhere from 1:3-5 parts (1 part cast to 3, 4, or 5 parts other
medium). This depends on how much you're wanting to plant. We can even break
this down into percentages like 20% worm cast to 80% other growth mediums. I
find using "parts" works much simpler and is generally the
same.

The percentage or parts you'll be using
will heavily depend upon how many plants you'll be transplanting. Here is a
trick I've come up with so you can use just the right amount in conjunction with
the amount of castings you've harvested.

After you've harvested all of the
castings you have then use your starter pot to scoop out a portion of
castings all the way to the rim of
the pot. Set aside 4 empty starter pots
for every full starter pot of worm castings. If you have 10 starter pots of
worm castings then that's 50 starter pots to plant your seeds in. You can
dump all of the castings into a mixing tub and then repeat this for the
other mediums. Save some castings for later. (about 2-3 generous
handfuls)

Add your minerals to the mixing tub.
The percentage on this doesn't matter. Just use a good amount like a couple
of handfuls and any other nutritional boosters, like kelp for example.

After mixing, you're now ready to sow
your seeds. That's it.

Transplanting
It's time to transplant. This was one of your fears, now that you're out of
castings. If you're someone who has plenty more worm castings
then use the mix
and percentages again for transplanting, only increase your worm castings 5-10%
but only if you'd like to.

This ensures that you'll have enough for
the growing season and sets your mind at ease. For those that are out of
castings, create a new mix, like above (except for the worm castings), pull the
seedling out of the starter pots and plant them in with the new mix.

Water your plants when needed. Eventually,
they'll start to run out of fertilizer, BUT this is why you saved a few handfuls
of moist castings. You may just be fine with the mix that's in already because
you used carbon litter that promotes microbial growth. It also attracts
indigenous worms and insects to feast on the carbon to turn it into more plant
food over the growing season.

You'll want to brew some aerated worm tea
from
the castings you saved earlier. This will be a game changer for those that
only had a little bit of castings to start with. The microbial population will
increase exponentially and run off into places deep beyond the roots and out
laterally where new roots have grown.

Continue to brew and apply the tea once to
twice per month and better yet, as often as you'd like. You can never apply too
much tea.

Testing Castings
Often times, many people like to test variations of casting percentages all the
way up to 50-100%. Many studies have shown these high percentages to either
stunt the plants growth or be a complete waste of good fertilizer. This has been
done many times with several opposing and similar
outcomes.

I cannot tell you to use only 10% worm
castings because it works for me or for you to use 40% worm castings because
that's the only way to get anything to grow. This is not me by the way. I'm just
making a point. Using 100% white paper pulp won't have as good of an outcome as
castings produced from manure.

Not all worm castings are created equal. If
we both used the same percentage of castings we may or may not get the same
results. This is why I have always used the 20-33% guideline. You'll need to do
your own testing based on the foods you give to your worms. You may find out
that you can scale back much more than 20%. I would only do this with a few
plants that you wouldn't mind becoming a guinea pig.

2. Worm Farming
Revolution Paperback Book Now Available

OMG! It's finally here. It's been a
very long (1 & 1/2 year) road from thought to actual paperback book. It's very
exciting to hold ones thoughts in the palm of their hand :)

I won't spend too much time talking about
the book as most of you know. However, I do want to mention there is an
affiliate program available for the resell of the eBook and all other digital
products belonging to WFR listed on the website. If you believe in the product
and the revolution, I'd love to have you as a partner.

It pays a handsome 50% commission on
everything. Currently, the most you can make is $20 but we're only getting
started. I have more products in my head and new coloring pages set to come out
in the summer. All payments
made monthly through PayPal. It's free and easy to
sign up and all you need is a link on your website, FaceBook, YouTube, G+,
Newsletter, Blog, etc. That's it!

I told you about my friend Brian "The Worm
Man" from Australia in the
last newsletter. He's been extremely busy (down under) getting his "Beast"
plans into a product download. These are plans to build a CFT
(continuous
flow-through) worm bin. Brian is very knowledgeable in the industry and if you
want to build a small-scale commercial worm system, then you'll love the Beast.

He offers different download prices for you
to choose. This includes step-by-step instructions in a written guide and video
tutorials for a wooden CFT.

I left myself wide open for an onslaught of reviews, good & not so good.
Although I've written quite a bit on the website, I've never written a book
before and I was sure that there would be some negativity. I was expecting
mostly good reviews, but thought the negative ones would be sure to come. The
reviews are still coming and not one bad review yet (open mouth insert foot ;).
Although, it was recently placed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble so we shall see :)

With all that said thank you so much for your kind words and support. The
revolution is ALIVE and here to stay. Below are the winners in the Raffle
drawing for submitting your book reviews. The video of the drawing can be
seen here. It was recorded in order
for everyone to see the drawing so you knew, for sure, it was kept honest. Thank
you all! :D